Effigy Mounds National Monument

We stopped at Effigy Mounds National Monument near Harpers Ferry, IA on our return from the Wisconsin Dells.  The Effigy Mounds are burial mounds created by various Native American tribes hundreds of years ago.  There are several areas around the country to feature burial mounds, but this area is one of the few areas in which some mounds were created in the shapes of  animals.  Pictured at right is a little bear mound.

191 mounds have been preserved at Effigy Mounds National Monument.  Twenty-nine are in the shape of animals.  The rest are conical or compound mounds (rows of circles).

Trails start from two different areas.  You can start from the Visitors Center or the day-use area.  The trail from the Visitors Center will take you to one of four different locations - Fire Point, Twin Views, Third Scenic View and Hanging Rock.  Round trip ranges from 2 miles to Fire Point to 7 miles to Hanging Rock.  Stacie and Allen are pictured at Fire Point.

Fire Point is the most popular trail because it is the shortest.  You see the little bear mound and a long series of compound mounds on the way.  The Great Bear mound is just a short distance down from the little bear mound so we went to that and turned around from there.  There is quite an uphill walk the first half to three-quarter miles of the trail.  It is a pretty clean and well kept trail with many rest points along the way so as long as you can walk up hills, you should be okay. 

The day-use trails lead to the Compound Mound area and the Marching Bear Group.  Both trails are 4 miles round trip and both include mounds in the shapes of birds.  We did not take either of these trails to know how difficult they are.  

To see maps of the trails, visit this page by the National Park Service:

www.nps.gov/efmo/pphtml/maps.html

The .pdf map is the better of the two maps.  It takes a little longer to load and requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in, which most people have.  

Recommendations:

• We found this to be an educational stop.  We learned a lot about the mounds in a short period of time.  Take time to watch the 10-15 minute video at the Visitors Center.
• This can be a 2-3 hour stop or a 1-2 day stop depending on how many trails you want to hike.  The shortest trail does lead to a couple of bear mounds and some beautiful views of the Mississippi River.